Crazy comeback! How NC Central basketball rallied for a wild win over Delaware State
North Carolina Central University has gone viral.
The Eagles ended up on the winning end of one of the craziest comebacks of the 2021-22 season on Saturday night. Down seven with 27 seconds left, they hit three straight 3s to force overtime, and then ultimately defeat Delaware State, 84-79.
They did so in front of their home crowd — and with NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton’s longtime friend and retired UNC head coach Roy Williams on hand.
Here’s how it happened: After two made Delaware State free throws, the score at 71-64 with 27.4 seconds left, senior Eagle and Raleigh native Kris Monroe hit a 3 from the top of the key to cut the game’s margin to four.
After DSU went 1-for-2 from the line on its next trip, NCCU hit another 3. This one was by Justin Wright. 72-70.
Then, after another 1-of-2 free-throw trip from DSU, NCCU’s Wright dribbled the length of the floor with 8.0 seconds left and nailed a contested three from the right wing to tie the score at 73 with 3.0 seconds remaining.
“Wright across the floor,” the play-by-play announcer said on the call. “The three. For overtime! Are you kidding me?! Are you serious?! Are you actually serious?! Don’t play with me Justin Wright.”
One video on Twitter posted by @NCAABuzzerBters — an account praised by Mark Cuban as “one of the best basketball follows on Twitter” — has over 148,000 views. The account called the NCCU sequence “one of the CRAZIEST COMEBACKS I’ve EVER SEEN.”
Wright finished with 32 points on the night on 10-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 from 3-point range. Monroe finished with 14.
NCCU is now 14-11 and winners of four straight. The team will have to win its conference tournament (MEAC), which starts March 9, in order to earn a berth in the 2022 NCAA tournament.
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 12:19 PM.
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